Illuminates the course of development of modern social thought, from the Enlightenment to the 1920s. The essays focus on the most prominent social theorists, including Smith, Durkheim, Marx and Engels, and Weber. Each essay has been chosen to provide the main contributions of the theorist and the political and economic context in which he worked.

Introduction - Murray E.G. SmithSection One: Origins of Early Modern Social ThoughtIntroductionChapter 1: Origins of Sociology - Alan SwingewoodChapter 2: Justice and Markets: The Ambiguous Legacy of Adam Smith - David McNallyChapter 3: Science, Ideology and 'Economic Value' - Murray E.G. SmithSection Two: From Utopian Socialism to DurkheimIntroductionChapter 4: Industrialization and the Rise of Sociological Positivism - Alan SwingewoodChapter 5: The Supersession of Utopian Socialism - Ernest MandelChapter 6: Emile Durkheim - George RitzerSection Three: Karl MarxIntroductionChapter 7: Karl Marx: Life and Social Environment - David Ashley and David M. OrensteinChapter 8: The Place of Marxism in History - Ernest MandelChapter 9: Presenting Karl Marx - Leon TrotskyChapter 10: Marx: Society as Second Nature - David Frisby and Derek SayerSection Four: Max WeberIntroductionChapter 11: Max Weber: The Disenchantment of the World - Randall Collins and Michael MakowskyChapter 12: Max Weber on Capitalism and Rationality - Tom BottomoreSection Five: The Woman Question in Modern Social TheoryIntroductionChapter 13: Sex and the Sociological Fathers - Rosalind SydieChapter 14: Engels: A Defective Formulation - Lise VogelSection Six: Theoretical ContrastsIntroductionChapter 15: Social Differentiation and the Division of Labour - Anthony GiddensChapter 16: History or Teleology? Marx versus Weber - Ellen Meiksins WoodAppendix: Glossary of Frequently Used Philosophical Terms in Social Theory